


Raise Your Banner

by GlowingMechanicalHeart



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Arya gets a banner, Gen, Sister bondings, Sister-Sister Relationship, Stark Positivity Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 04:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18380891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowingMechanicalHeart/pseuds/GlowingMechanicalHeart
Summary: "Jon mentioned something about your banner, so I made you one. I hope it pleases you."





	Raise Your Banner

**Author's Note:**

> For [DirewolfDaily](https://direwolfdaily.tumblr.com)'s Stark's Positivity Week. Day: Arya.

Arya walks into her chamber, finds it dark save for the roaring fire. Everything is different. How could it not be? War has blazed a fire and made the earth quake; it had scattered them all to the four winds and yet, they lived. No matter how much their enemies tried to kill them, they failed. They lived, they were home and above all things, were together.

Some days it is truly hard to believe that they are back. That she is back. In her old room, in the castle she grew up in. Only it's the people who are strange, she doesn't know most of them.

 _'But then,'_ she thinks. _'In some ways, am a stranger too.'_

Starts to remove Needle and makes way to her bed and finds a bundle there, a little note on top of it. It's from Sansa, she can recognize her sister's hand. So she sets Needle down, and takes the parchment in her hands, reads it carefully.

_"Jon mentioned something about your banner, so I made you one. I hope it pleases you."_

Arya blinks. She has not said anything of any banner to Jon recently. And then it hits her, like a sweet dream she remembers, what she feels is long ago, two children speaking about 'a wolf with a trout in its mouth.'

Sets the note aside, and unwraps the bundle. Carefully, she extends the banner and blinks. Feels her heart clench and all the air leave her.

Half of it is blue with a trout leaping upwards, the other side is grey with a wolf on it's hind legs, front legs meeting the trout. But right in the middle of it, there is a slim sword. Needle. Sansa had gone ahead and recreated her sword, made it fit to be on a banner.

Arya takes a deep breath, looks at her banner. There, in her hands is her heritage staring at her face, her mother and her father's blood. And her sword letting Westeros know that she is a daughter of Winterfell, that she is the blood of wolves and trouts. And that she carries arms. That she is no lady who will not fight back, because her banner says it clearly, she will.

Arya feels herself grin. How clever of Sansa. To display her identity as clear as day, so that no one will question it. Both a declaration of self and a warning.

Let them know that she might have blood of a trout in veins, but she is a wolf and her bite is fearsome, her bite is cold and lethal. Let them know that she bears arms and she will not hesitate to draw them in defense of self, her siblings, her house or who needs it.

It's perfect.

Folds it and places it gently in her bed. Goes in search of her sister. Finds Sansa in her chamber and after being invited in, she does. Sansa is readying for bed, brushing her hair. And for one moment, none say anything. In the end, she breaks the silence.

"Thank you." Arya speaks first. "For the banner I mean, it is perfect."

Sansa stops, turns around and smiles at her sister, "I am glad you liked it! I hoped you would, I wasn't certain if you would. I could change it if you want?"

"No," Arya shakes her head, closing the distance between them, coming to stand next to her sister. "It is perfect as it is. Thank you. Are you making one for everyone?"

"Aye, I am. Yours is the first one I did, I wanted to see if you liked it before I did the others." Sansa stands, holds her hand and walks to the bed, sits and Arya follows. Doesn't take her hand off her sister's. "If you had not like it, for any reason, I would have made you another to your liking, with your ideas of course!"

Arya feels a bit awkward, her relationship with her sister was not the best. But now, after everything, they are trying. Their father was right, they needed each other. War taught them that two wolves are better when they stand united, they are not perfect, but they try. For their mother, for their father, for Robb too. In house fighting should have no place in House Stark.

"Well, I like it. Very much. I am glad that you put Needle there," Arya looks away. "I means much to me that you did."

"I know," Sansa's voice is gentle and soft. "I had so little of home, that I can understand how that sword could have meant the world."

Their hands clasp. The words that they don't speak out loud, they do so with gestures. Their hold is strong, they are not letting go willingly again. They have found one another, they will stand by each other.

"I am glad you survived. I am glad that you are here."

"I am glad you did too. I am glad that after being half the world away, you came home."

There is silence, but is not uncomfortable nor awkward.

"...And how are you going to do your banner, then?" Arya is the one who breaks the silence, curious look in her face.

Sansa smiles, "Almost the same, only completely grey and and a rose instead of a sword."

"You could add a wolf with bat wings."

Sansa blinks and tilts her head, "Oh?"

"Yeah. When Joffrey died, I heard that you had killed, turned yourself into a giant wolf with bat wings and escaped."

"Oh," Sansa thinks. "I wish I could have done that."

"It would have been a sight to see. But why," Arya looks at her sister. "Why the banners? Specially for us. Women rarely get banners on their own."

"Well," Sansa looks away for a moment. "I just thought, silly as it is, that should we ever need them, we would have them ready. Think about it, I might not be able to fight and lead an army, but you can. You will keep training with your sword, won't you? Well, should it ever come to it, should Arya Stark ever march to war at the head of an army, you will have a banner to raise. One that is yours and yours alone."

Arya thinks, and then a smile slowly turns into a grin. Yes, let Westeros know that she is Arya Stark, and she will fight.

Arya Stark will raise her own banner.

 


End file.
